Pisa Chinese Film Festival

An Italian film festival devoted to China.

The Festival is organized by PolisFilm srl (www.polisfilm.it) and Confucius Institute of Pisa

PolisFilm is Polis Ltd. was set up in January 2008 to produce the documentary “211: Anna” by Paolo Serbandini and Giovanna Massimetti, which was selected from 744 documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival 2009 (Park City, Utah, USA). The documentary told the story of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaja, was bought by RAI3 (Doc 3 broadcast) and by the satellite channel Current TV, and won the special judge’s prize at the Ilaria Alpi awards. Thee documentary was chosen at the following International Film Festivals: Newport BeaThch Film Festival (23 – 30 April 2009, Los Angeles – USA); Docaviv (7 – 16 May 2009, Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival); David di Donatello (Fifth round finalist) as best documentary 2008; Bellaria Film Festival (2 – 6 June 2009, special mention by the judges, Current TV award, UCCA award from the Cinematographic Society linked to ARCI); Ilaria Alpi Awards (18 – 20 June 2009, Riccione, Italy); Globians World & Culture Documentary Film Festival (12 –17 August 2009, Berlin, Germany); Rio de Janiero Film Festival (24 September – 8 October 2009, Rio de Janiero, Brazil). “211:Anna” was distributed in the United States by Seminal Films, 3940 Laurel Canyon Blvd, #222, Studio City, CA 91604 (USA).

Polis Ltd has been engaged by the Pisa Regional Authority to improve and promote the documentary “Voices from the darkness” co-produced by Giffoni Film festival and Pisa Regional Authority, directed by Giuseppe Carrisi and also to make the documentary “Zarema and the others” financed by the Cinema Department of the Ministry of Cultural Activities and Heritage.

The Confucius Institute is a non-profit public organization, promoted by the Chinese Ministry of Education. The main objectives of the Confucius Institute are linguistic training and promotion of Chinese culture, in order to pursue the ideal of lifelong learning and enhance the mutual comprehension and friendship among peoples.

The Istituto Confucio di Pisa is the outcome of a cooperation agreement between Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and Chongqing University signed in December 2004 in Beijing. The agreement promotes scientific, cultural and academic co-operation between the two university institutions.

Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies is a special-statute public university, which belongs to the Italian network of Schools of Excellence and Advanced Studies. It operates in the field of applied sciences: Economics, Law and Political Sciences, Agriculture, Medicine, Industrial and Information Engineering.

Chongqing University hosts thirty Colleges, ranging from Engineering to Arts and Management. Being one of the most prestigious universities in China, it is the main centre of higher education and research in the Chongqing area, economic and cultural hub of Southwest China.

The Istituto Confucio di Pisa belongs to the academic and scientific structure of Sant’Anna School, which runs it in cooperation with Chongqing University and with the support of the China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (Hanban, in Chinese), department of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China.

It is an important cultural, economic and academic project, which, under the direction of a group of scholars and experts, represents a point of reference for the mutual understanding, exchanges and economic activities between Tuscany and China, as well as for the cultural recognition of the Chinese community in Tuscany.

The Istituto Confucio di Pisa belongs to a network of 243 Confucius Institutes located in 71 different countries.